Exploring parent-adolescent family meal environment perceptions and their associations with disordered eating behaviors and thoughts
Year: 2025
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Disordered eating behaviors and thoughts (DEBTs)--including loss of control over eating and body dissatisfaction--are common and concerning among adolescents with higher weights. One underexplored factor likely associated with DEBTs is the family meal environment (FME), which can be conceptualized by its frequency, prioritization, structure, and atmosphere. This wider conceptualization has been minimally investigated in adolescents with higher weights, and existing research on family meal frequency and DEBTs in boys yields mixed results, highlighting the need to examine gender differences using the widened FME conceptualization. This secondary analysis characterized the FME of adolescents with higher weights and their parents, assessed its potential protective role against DEBTs, evaluated parent-adolescent FME discrepancies and their links to DEBTs, and explored gender as a potential moderator. Participants included 58 adolescents with higher weights (Mage = 15.34 ± 1.35, 67.2% white, 62.1% female) and their parents. Parents and adolescents completed an FME measure and adolescents also completed measures of DEBTs. Adolescents generally perceived the FME less positively, though the only significant difference emerged in atmosphere ratings, t(114) = -2.07, p = .04. Notably, greater adolescent-perceived FME structure was associated with increased dietary restraint, B = .31, SE = .12, [beta] = .33, t(1, 56) = 2.34, p = .01. Furthermore, larger discrepancies between parent and adolescent ratings of FME structure were linked to higher adolescent dietary restraint. These findings emphasize the value of assessing the FME when seeking to understand DEBTs in adolescents with higher weights. Future research directions and implications are discussed.
DOI: 10.17918/00010979
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W4411359246